Echoes of the Events to Come
The Sky was burnt orange, as the Doctor stood in the mouth of the cave in the side of the Mountain of Solitude the first of Gallifrey's twin suns rose from behind Solace. The golden fiery light reflected perfectly off of the glass dome forming a rainbow of colours as the silver towers glistened, as tears streamed down the Doctor's eyes the second sun rose, the silver leaf trees that surrounded the Citadel, were lit up like a forest on fire and as a morning breeze swept through the valley the sand was brought up and singing filled the air as the wind rustled the trees.
"I thought I'd find you here," the Doctor turned round, the smiled still firmly on his lips as he faced Braxiatel, like the Doctor Brax wasn't in standard Time Lord robes but was dressed in human clothes, an immaculate shirt, tie, waistcoat and suit jacket.
"Can you believe that some Time Lords have never seen this vista?" the Doctor asked as Brax sat down beside him amongst the sand and dust, the Doctor did likewise.
"No, I still remember when I showed you this place," Brax smiled nostalgically as did the Doctor. "You'd just looked into the Untempered Schism and were so scared, and then you saw the sunrise and you just smiled."
"Yeah I remember Brax," the Doctor sighed looking down at the Citadel. "Alright, I'll tell you what happened, I was travelling with Mary, Mary Shelley, and she just kept reminding me of Scarlette."
"The woman you married in 1783?" Brax asked, not needing clarification.
"I left Samson and Gemma in Vienna, and I don't know if I want to go and get them," the Doctor said, smiling once more he looked down at the Citadel. "I spent a thousand years rebuilding the planet, before leaving again, and I just keep feeling that I'm too old for gallivanting around the universe."
"And do what, sit here watching the Capital, sitting on the high council?" Brax asked completely incredulous. "Doctor, Gallifrey is forever in your debt, and you will never be forgotten, but go out there and see the universe. In fact let me give you some help."
Brax then handed to the Doctor a silver disc emblazoned with the seal of Rassilon. The Doctor took the disc and twirled it in his hands before looking questioningly at Brax.
"We intercepted a transtemporal transmission fragment, it seems to be meant for you," Brax stopped taking a deep breath. "It's from Sarah Jane."
Those two words were enough to break the Doctor's gaze on the Citadel.
"Where is she, what's happened?" the sense of urgency was apparent in his voice, even after all the years since he'd last seen her.
"We intercepted the signal in an area protected by an occlusion field, Romana thought it best if you were to investigate." Brax said slowly and gently. "Your TARDIS has already been primed and is ready for departure."
"You just assumed my agreement!" the Doctor responded, trying to sound angrily, but unable to hid the fact that he was unable to feel anger in that place with Brax.
"No, by a Presidential order your TARDIS is always primed and ready to go," Brax simply said smiling down at him.
The Doctor smiled.
"Is this just to get me off the planet for a while?" the Doctor looked questioningly at Brax. "Because if it is, it's working."
The Doctor pulled himself to his feet and brushed off the velvet frock coat and trousers before offering a hand to Brax who took it willingly.
"Scenic route?" Brax asked the Doctor looking down the ledge to the hourglass citadel.
The Doctor smiled and nodded in agreement.
Doctor looked around the TARDIS console room, he'd already gone over the CIA data on the signal and its origin coordinates, to say it wasn't much was an understatement. Still an old friend had called for help and the Doctor would run to answer it.
The TARDIS engines roared to a crescendo before stopping and the Doctor instantly felt discomfort, somewhere out there was a fixed point in time, a fact, that's something that's never meant to happen. Still he'd come this far. Pressing the control to open the massive double doors the Doctor rushed out to greet whatever awaited him.
Jack paced around the dark corridor; out of the corner of his eye he could see Sarah cover a scow, however Mickey was more vocal.
"Stay still for just a moment will you!" Mickey called out in exasperation.
Jack grumbled in answer but did sit down beside Sarah.
"Look, I've already said I'm sorry, can we just drop it?" Jack asked, his voice rose slightly.
"Well since we're all trapped here…" Mickey said sarcastically, his mouth spread to an insincere smile.
Before Jack could counter a wheezing and groaning filled the air as the TARDIS took shape, however when they saw the subtle differences to the most recent version they stood back, as such they were unsurprised when a very different man came out.
He was wearing polished black shoes, cream trousers, a collarless shirt, cravat, waistcoat and a green velvet frock coat.
"Hell- gah!" the Doctor gasped in agony as he looked at Jack. "What in the name of Rassilon happened to you?"
"Doctor?" Sarah asked stepping forward to look at him. "Did we meet again after you were called back home?"
"No," the Doctor said averting his eyes from Jack.
"Then we're from you're future," Sarah said hesitantly.
"Okay, sorry just to be clear you are all companions of a future version of me, which I assume isn't present otherwise we wouldn't have intercepted the signal on Gallifrey-" the Doctor looked startled as Martha interrupted him.
"Gallifrey?"
"It's my homeworld, surely I must have mentioned it, I've been staying at home for a while," the Doctor said, unable to ignore the glances between his future companions. "Okay, where are we, the Celestial Intervention Agency wasn't able to find out much about this place."
"Well, we detected a large planet sized ship entering the solar system, I tried to use my vortex manipulator to get here," Jack started glaring at Mickey. "But we hit some kind of field and we ended up with some degree of temporal displacement and we ended up here."
"Alright, well I'm sorry this is going to be hard, every instinct in my body wants me to run from you, still..." trailing off the Doctor took in his surroundings. "The CIA data wasn't very thorough and Brax wanted me off planet, so lets investigate."
The Doctor smiled before looking around, he then stood completely straight with his hands behind his back with his eyes closed, after a deep breath he turned to face a dark recess in the hallway.
"This way," the Doctor smiled as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, he then stopped and examined the panel before placing a hand over it, then the Doctor heard massive locks sliding back. "Not again…"
"Doctor?" Sarah asked sideling up to him. "What is it?"
"I've been here before, metaphorically speaking anyways," the Doctor said as he took a torch out of his coat pocket handing it to Jack. "Meeting people and seeing events from my future, it didn't go well…"
Turning round to the others he took charge, using the same voice the Doctor had learnt to use during high council meetings he took authority.
"Jack, you stay at the back, Mickey you're with me, Sarah and Martha stay in the middle." Without waiting for a response he strode into the darkness.